Will the kitties come back to shore

[gripy111]

Utah Lake.
Will the kitties be coming back into shore this year.
Whats a good water temp or day temp to get them moving in.
Any bank anglers catching white bass and a good place to try.
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Bank tangling for channel cats on Utah Lake is probably over for this year. The combination of low water and dropping water temps has them moving out into the deeper spots.

I keep a log of all my fishing trips. That log includes notations on the depths at which I caught fish...from the shallowest to the deepest. Over the past ten years at Utah Lake the pattern is very clear. Cats move shallow beginning in April or May...mostly to feed. They stay shallow through spawning...in June and July. Then lots of them remain in the shallows to feed on crawdads and the fry of their own and other species through the warm weather months.

But...once the days grow shorter and the water temps start to drop the cats' food supply leaves the shallows and seeks deeper/warmer waters. And the cats follow their food.

Part of that food supply is young white bass. The whities had a poor spawn this year...after poor spawns the previous two years. So the white bass population is down. Nobody is finding any numbers of white bass anywhere. There are brief encounters with small schools but none of the traditional hangouts are producing much.

Two weeks ago I fished off Lincoln Point. The shallowest I had any action was about 5 feet. That was well over 100 yards from the rock shelves. And I got the most bites...both from cats and from white bass out in 6' of water...about a 1/4 mile from shore. That is an area that is about 12' deep during "normal" water years.

The whole north end, east side and west side of Utah Lake is quite shallow. You have to go hundreds of yards offshore to find 3-4' of water. There are a couple of areas of 5-6 feet of water off the Knolls. The deeper spots around Bird Island are in the 6-7' range. But the most consistent 6' deep flat bottom water is straight out from Lincoln Point. Once you start finding 6' on your sonar you can travel for miles at that same depth.

That being said, there are a precious few spots around Lincoln Point where fingers of deeper water come in within casting distance of shore. And a few knowledgeable anglers who have paid their dues...or gotten lucky...have found those spots and still catch a few cats on a good warm day this time of year.

Good luck. Just remember, it is always better to have fished and skunked than to never have fished at all.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]